Accordia International Council

Promoting Wider Recognition of Accordia’s Work

The Accordia International Council was established in late 2008 to generate greater appreciation of Accordia—and the important work we are doing in sub-Saharan Africa—among the world’s civic, cultural, and business leaders. The Council consists of distinguished men and women and will include leaders in business and industry, medicine, law, finance, communications, the arts, entertainment, and community affairs. Together and individually they serve as Accordia’s global ambassadors, promoting wider recognition of Accordia’s accomplishments in ‘building Africa’s capacity to fight infectious disease through training, research, care and prevention.'

Gary Bridge

Gary L. Bridge is a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners (HBP), a private equity investment manager headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining HBP in 1985, Mr. Bridge was a partner at Cowen & Company in Boston, where he was a nationally recognized security analyst for more than 10 years. Prior to Cowen, he was a Vice-President with G. S. Grumman & Associates, an investment research firm that was acquired by Cowen and became its institutional research department. Mr. Bridge started his investment career with John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he held various positions including responsibility for investments made in the computer and aerospace industries. Mr. Bridge serves on numerous private equity firm advisory boards around the world, including Asia.

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Nancy Brady

Nancy Brady has worked with Pfizer since 2003, and is currently a Therapeutic Specialty Representative in the Northeast Powers division.  Over the past five years, she has worked in various sales capacities in multiple therapeutic areas.  In addition to her professional expertise, Nancy has 14 years of collective philanthropic experience in several not-for-profit organizations primarily focused on AIDS services, child assault prevention, homelessness, Rwandan rape survivors and their families, micro-enterprise in the developing world, and global poverty.  She is extremely passionate about empowering individuals through education.

During 2008-09, Nancy completed a Pfizer Global Health Fellowship at IDI as a communications specialist.  Nancy’s responsibilities included interviewing alumni medical practitioners and profiling how their IDI training has benefited their communities.  In addition, Nancy worked with the Director of Communications to develop plans for creating greater awareness of the program throughout Africa.

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Nicholas Hellmann 

Dr. Nicholas Hellmann serves as Executive Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. In this position, he provides strategic direction for programs and research initiatives, ensuring that children are at the forefront of medical and scientific breakthroughs. Prior to assuming his current position, Hellmann was the program leader of the HIV/AIDS Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was responsible for strategy, research, program, and policies related to HIV/AIDS for the Foundation. He has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, having worked with industry leaders like Roche Molecular Systems, ViroLogic, Gilead Sciences, Genentech, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Hellmann received his MD degree from the University of Kentucky in 1982, and completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Infectious Diseases Fellowship training at UCSF, where he later became an Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases Division. While on staff at UCSF, Hellmann conducted research in Uganda to identify HIV risk factors and develop effective intervention strategies to reduce heterosexual HIV transmission.

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Kay Mitzel

Kay Mitzel is the director of medical relations at Pfizer, Specialty Care. She was an early champion for the Accordia concept and helped facilitate Dr. Merle Sande's initial efforts to launch the program. Inspired by his passion for golf, she converted the annual Bagger Vance (now Sande Bagger Vance) golf tournament into a fund raiser for Accordia. Kay currently supports Pfizer's infectious diseases portfolio including advisory boards, society meetings and Fellowships and reviews medical education grants. Kay is a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry and is known worldwide as a liaison to the infectious diseases community and a passionate advocate for quality healthcare.

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Robert Norton

Robert W. Norton retired as Senior Vice President for Corporate Human Resources for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group in 2004, after having been appointed to that position in 2001. He joined Pfizer in 1969, working in the Corporate Personnel Division. He held a number of international and domestic positions in human resources and from 1985 to 1997, served as Pfizer’s senior international human resources executive. Currently, Mr. Norton serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Fisk University and has demonstrated significant leadership in helping to raise funds for this historically black liberal arts college, which was struggling for survival just two years ago. He is the former chairman of the Department of State Overseas Schools Advisory Council.

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Steven Phillips, MD

Dr. Steven C. Phillips is the Medical Director, Global Issues and Projects, ExxonMobil Corporation, where his responsibilities include overseeing the Corporation's "outside-the-fenceline" community and public health programs throughout its global operations. In this capacity, he has worked closely with governments, NGO's, U.N. agencies, multilateral, faith-based, and community organizations, and the private sector in fostering "public-private partnerships" as a development platform to address urgent global health priorities. Prior to joining Exxon, Dr. Phillips served in the U.S. Public Health Service and was assigned to the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Dr. Phillips is a member of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology. He currently serves on the Boards of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Malaria NO MORE™, Net Impact, and the World Economic Forum's Global Health Initiative. He is a member of the Harvard School of Public Health's Leadership Council and the advisory panels of Medicines for Malaria Ventures; Episcopal Relief and Development's "NetsforLife" Initiative; the World Bank Malaria Booster Program; and the International Strategic Advisory Group of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria. He is also the Private Sector Advisory Board representative to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

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Eric Sande

Eric Sande is the President of Intertie Systems, a leading home automation company specializing in energy management.  Eric resides in the Bay Area with his wife and two young sons.  Eric is the son of Accordia co-founder Dr. Merle A. Sande.  He and his wife were honored to be at the dedication of the IDI in Kampala in 2004.  As part of Accordia's International Council, Eric will focus his efforts on cultivating interest and support for the organization.

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John Wienold

John Wienold serves as Council chair in Chicago. Mr. Wienold’s professional career spans over 30 years of law, and he has been active within the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization since 1990 as well as supporting other local charities. John’s professional career spans over 30 years of law within the Chicago area. He has a Juris Doctor Degree from Southern Methodist University. His primary focus is on personal injury litigation. He has tried over a 150 lawsuits to verdict and has had over 25 appellate decisions published. John has been active in truck safety and has represented numerous victims of heavy truck crashes throughout the country, which on many occasions have resulted in lasting positive change within the industry. He has been active with and supported grassroots safety organizations such as Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, Parents against Tired Truckers and the Coalition for Highway Safety. He has spoken frequently on highway safety and has worked with major experts in the field, both in the United States and in Europe. John has also represented women and their families victimized by breast cancer against the insurance industry when lifesaving benefits were unjustly denied.

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Claudia Bonnist Winchell

Claudia Bonnist Winchell, co-owner of Fighting Bear Antiques and Broker/owner of Private Realty Group, LLC, came to Jackson, Wyoming in 2005. Claudia is currently on the Council for Teton Literacy Group, a non-profit language teaching organization and involved in Jackson Hole’s “Center for the Arts”. She was originally from Larchmont and Mamaroneck, New York, and raised her two, now grown, children, in Greenwich, Connecticut. Claudia then moved to Sanibel Island, Florida where she resided for 17 years and was a Broker-Associate with Priscilla Murphy Realty, later ResortQuest International. Earlier in her career, Claudia was the assistant to the president of Donald Art Company, a family owned fine art publishing company, and worked with an advertising company for many years prior to her move to Florida. Claudia graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelors degree in Fine Art, and a minor in both math and French.”

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Terry Winchell

Terry Winchell has lived in Jackson Hole for over thirty years. He owns and operates Fighting Bear Antiques, successfully growing the business from a small antiques store to a nationally recognized gallery. He is an authority on rustic furniture and the author of Thomas Molesworth, “The Pioneer of Western Design.” He has lectured extensively on the subject of Western Design and was the architect of two Public Television programs: one for WGBH Boston and the other for Main Street Wyoming. Terry served on the Board of the Jackson Hole Historical Society and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Grand Teton Park Foundation. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Western Design Conference. Terry Winchell joined the Center for the Arts Board of Directors in September 2006 and has served on the Building and Grounds, Programming and Fundraising committees and Chairman of the Finance Committee. He was elected Chairman of the Board in October of 2009 and serves in that capacity.

Terry received a degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska and attended the University of Colorado, Graduate Business School, in Boulder, Colorado.

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